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During the Trump years, it was a real possibility that you might get kettled, maced, arrested, beaten, tazed, charged with felonies, hit by a car by a “counterprotestor”, or straight-up killed by the police during a lot of the protests. I am pretty surprised that stuff hasn’t started back up again, although I heard some shit’s started going down in Portland and NYC and I definitely expect it to get worse.
I’m not going to make a decision on behalf of anyone else as pertains to their safety, especially if they are as you point out uniquely vulnerable during the Trump years. But my limited experience with this contingent is that it is ready to fight when threatened, that was kind of the whole point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH8nhqQbd28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go
Yeah these people seem super concerned that in this DEI climate it might impact their job security if they get out and protest.
I will say that the protest contingent I’ve been out with seems a lot whiter than the BLM contingent was. That’s not super surprising to me. And everyone can do what they want. But “they’re prioritizing self-care, they’ve earned it, other people should sit out too” is just a ridiculous and Trump-friendly take on why and what people should be doing.
During the Trump years, it was a real possibility that you might get kettled, maced, arrested, beaten, tazed, charged with felonies, hit by a car by a “counterprotestor”, or straight-up killed by the police during a lot of the protests
That never stopped. The student intifada? Tortuguita? Etc.
I didn’t say it stopped completely. My point was that the level of police response to these Trump protests is radically different than what we’ve seen so far.
It is hard to estimate sizes, but the BLM protests in 2020 were somewhere around 5 times bigger than the current round of Trump protests (looks like 3-5 million versus 15-26 million). During the BLM protests, three people that I know of lost their eyes, tens of thousands got arrested, and 17 people died. Presumably a lot more than 17 got injured. That’s pretty consistent with the pattern of how protest (peaceful or not) usually gets dealt with in this country.
As far as I know, a few hundred people have been arrested so far this time. That’s it. I have literally almost never felt unsafe during the Trump protests. Do you know of more than that which has been happening?
the level of police response to these Trump protests is radically different than what we’ve seen so far.
If you’re referring to the 50501 or “hands off” protests then yes, there has been no response because those have, generally, been parades not protests. There’s no point in repressing the toothless.
I have literally almost never felt unsafe during the Trump protests.
Resisting fascism is an inherently unsafe act. If you’ve never felt unsafe then you are not actually protesting.
Do you know of more than that which has been happening?
Are the Tesla protests and arsons close to what you’re asking about? I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “has been happening”?
Machiavelli wrote the words “divide and conquer.”
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the division would come from within.
The enemy within is the most hateful enemy there is. When they’re in charge, it’s pretty nearly game over for whoever was less machiavellian.
Just, fucking wow.
What is wrong with you and why are you like this?
Fuck me. Wow.
Okay, so tell me. What’s wrong with me?
I think the thesis here (and backed up by the site linked in the first paragraph), is that Black women, after consistently showing up for progressive causes and democracy, are being encouraged to prioritize self-care at the moment, to avoid burning themselves out.
I take no stand on whether that’s a “good reason,” (I have no right) but that’s my reductive summary of the piece anyway.
You absolutely have a right to take a stand as to that summary. That summary is a summary of an incredibly stupid point of view, and I think it is fair to say so, whatever the race of the person who is supposedly holding it.
You should always prioritize self-care to the extent that you need to. That’s a given. That is actually, as far as I can tell, the point of the Essence article, which to me (unlike this article) makes perfect sense: Definitely not that they should not protest right now or anything, because doing so would be a favor to a bunch of people who haven’t earned in who now need to go on the back burner or something, but that black women just like anybody need to find ways to keep things moving forward, and also find ways to take care of themselves while they do it and make sure they’re doing that.
The idea that that means “sitting out” the protests now until the next horrifying thing starts happening to them because of what Trump is putting into action, once it is maybe too late to stop it, is bonkers.
Here’s an excerpt:
Some observers think these protests are more effective than the ones associated with the first Trump administration, namely the 2017 “Women’s March” and the 2020 BLM protests. The main difference seems to be that the earlier iterations had the words women and Black in them, while these are focusing on democracy. The implication is that the earlier protests problematically emphasized identity over democracy
This is just fucking gibberish. The BLM protests accomplished a ton of good progress. No one I know outside of MAGA people who are cloaking what they really think, tries to say that they were “problematic” or “emphasized identity.” Who are these observers who think that the current round of protests has accomplished more than BLM, or has this particular crazypants diagnosis for why? They are not named. That reference to nebulous “observers” who apparently hold some nonsensical but convenient point of view, so that the supposed view can be repeated and given some authority without the author needing to defend it, is actually a key example of why I felt like I needed to post this article in this community.
“I have no right” is very weak and sheepish. Oof.
That’s fitting, since I am in fact weak and sheepish.
Good luck with that
She gave up because Harris lost, and is “unmoved” by what’s going on.
The entire op ed is saying she just doesn’t care. That’s not the “good reason” she seems to think it is.
No it isn’t. For the benefit of anyone not intentionally being cold and maybe just having some trouble putting themselves in others’ shoes, I’ll go on.
I’m not from the US, but I completely understand the extreme hurt, alienation, and disillusionment described here. I’ve felt it myself too, from here in Canada. The sense that an entire country might as well have just rejected you personally, with the rise of all those “anti-woke” campaigns and–despite what it should have meant for them-- seeing white women and other people of colour willingly vote in increased numbers (within their respective demographics) for patriarchal white nationalists (along with the poor and middle class once again voting for the least favourable party toward their interests).
That kind of added alienation (because there is always some background alienation to start with, especially for black women) within a land that should feel like your own home, and from people you thought should theoretically have your back? It makes you feel unsafe. It makes you feel like a scapegoat on top of that, when you start hearing talk from DNC people about how they have to stop caring about equality so much. The question arises of whether anyone-- as a matter of principle-- truly cares about justice for you, when you always cared about it for them.
I don’t know how long it will take, but for a lot of people, all the hope that was crushed will have to be replenished.
If you’ve been caring and fighting for years and constantly being shit on I don’t blame them for checking out on a country that clearly doesn’t want to be better.
That is when evil wins. When the good give up.
Evil has already won, because people didn’t do enough to help them fight it when it could be defeated.
No, it hasn’t won yet, because there is still a chance to fight back. Remember Luigi.
After Trump won, all the “inflation is a super big deal, a lot of people are blaming Biden” and “Gaza is super important, everyone’s protesting and blaming
BidenHarris” stuff completely exited from the American media. No one in America cares about inflation or Gaza anymore, I guess. Everything was kind of quiet for a while, and now I’ve noticed a little trickle of “here’s why all the cool kids are not protesting” starting to come into vogue. This one isn’t the first.If you pay attention, you can pick out which stories don’t really make sense or have a reason to get created in the way that they are from someone who was just trying to report on reality, and the ones that stick out always serve one and only one side of the narrative.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.The original series of speeches and sermons by the former Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller’s mentiones the Incurables, Communists, socialists, schools, unionists, democratic socialists, Jews, the press, and the Church. but explicitly avoids mentioning the Nazi party started with felons and foreigners.
The original German poem omits the felons, foreigners, incurables, schools, press and church.
The American English version further omits the Communists and originally tried to replace “unions” with “industrialists”.
If you are going to project the “first they came for” concept onto the USA you can either start with the spirit of the poem:
First they came for the indigenous peoples
Which sets the start date of the poem to at least ~1850.
Or you can start with the letter of the poem:
First they came for the Communists
Which sets the start date to at least ~1950.
I just happened to use the version of the poem that I happened to be familiar with. I thank you for the history lesson, but I do hope that your statement wasn’t delivered with gatekeeping as the intention?
The intention was one of contextualizing current events. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by gatekeeping?
Unfortunately, the limitations of technology can make a comment appear sarcastic, and given the nature of the days, I wanted to err on the side of caution. I apologize for any misunderstanding on my part.
Some chucklefuck downvoted this.
They’re also in these comments. Check who it is, if you have the ability, it gives some perspective about their other participation here.
I actually don’t know who it is. Nor do I care, since I will speak my mind and stand for what is right. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.
Yeah. It’s not like an equivocal quote, in terms of how to respond to it or whether to agree, and it’s not like anyone can claim it is not applicable right now.
